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Punjab: Downpour to deluge, region disrupted

TNN | Updated: Aug 19, 2019, 13:46 IST

PATIALA/LUDHIANA/JALANDHAR/AMRITSAR: Heavy rain and swollen rivers prompted administrations of at least seven districts in Punjab to order the evacuation of nearly 250 villages on Sunday — most of them along the Sutlej and Beas. The orders came on a day when four weather-caused fatalities were reported in the state. Three members of a family were killed in a rain-caused roof-collapse in Aol village of Khanna, Ludhiana district, on Saturday night, while a three-year-old girl drowned in Nurpur Bedi, Ropar district, after floodwater entered a school. Punjab chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh held a meeting to review measures to tackle the situation. Deputy commissioners and police heads of each district attended the meeting through video conferencing. The evacuations were ordered as water released from dams on the Sutlej and Beas in Himachal Pradesh was expected to flood the villages. Meanwhile, spillage from the four floodgates of Gobind Sagar Reservoir of Bhakra Dam continued for the third day, with 53,000 cusecs being released. Water level in the dam was at 1,677.48 feet when this story was filed. The danger mark is 1,680 feet. The BBMB, which manages the dam, was monitoring the situation at all dams. In all, 223 of the nearly 250 villages are located along the Sutlej river in Ropar, SBS Nagar, Jalandhar, Moga, and Ferozepur. Several villages have also been affected by the swollen rivers, though evacuation has not been ordered there. In Ludhiana, an alert was sounded in 23 villages. Forty-four villages in Tarn Taran district were also affected — 21on the banks of the Beas and 23 next to Sutlej. With water being released from the Pandoh dam in Himachal Pradesh, water level was expected to rise in the Beas too in the next 12 hours. The district administrations of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran issued alerts in the wake of heavy rainfalls. Water was also released from the Naptha Jhakri dam, which is situated on the Sutlej in Himachal Pradesh.

Evacuations were ordered after water level rose up to five feet in affected villages. The girl who drowned in Nurpur Bedi was the daughter of the school’s guard. The family was sleeping when the boundary wall of the school gave way and floodwater entered the school. Though the guard, Mohinder, his wife and son escaped, they could not pull out Sundari. Buses inside the school premises were also submerged under water. Nearly 35 villages in Ropar were affected. NDRF teams were carrying out rescue operations in low-lying are. Ropar DC Sumeet Jarangal said, “Twenty NDRF teams are on the job.” Educational institutes in SBS Nagar and Ropar have been shut.